Poll of the Day > You know what always bothered me about space travel shows/movies?

(+) Yeah! (+)

How they ALWAYS had all the ships oriented the same way. There's absolutely no reason for the ships to be upright on the same plane.

Depends. If they're flying in formation there's no real reason why they wouldn't be.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Depends. If they're flying in formation there's no real reason why they wouldn't be.

"Formation" flying in space and in atmosphere are completely different. Unless the ships have perfectly balanced flight models 360 degrees around the normal axis, it would most likely be better for them to be on different angels on the planes to account for a wider range of defense and attack.

However that still doesn't account for why other ships are also on the same plane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9W7pvOLxmQ

Helms and navigation might have a standard position to align with their star chart.

If you're going to have transports moving between larger ships it simplifies things if they agree on in which direction gravity works.

unless the galaxy actually is flat... because they kinda art

Because it's easier to draw that way

It's space traffic rules

It's like how cars always drive on the right side of the road, even though they don't have to

T0ffee posted...

youtube.com

you beat me

Lokarin posted...

unless the galaxy actually is flat... because they kinda art

solar systems internally tend to be, I think. but the galaxy is just stars in practically every direction, and the star systems are not necessarily aligned to the galactic plane (ours is at 60 degrees or something I think, which is closer to perpendicular than parallel to the galactic plane).

Sahuagin posted...

you beat me

solar systems internally tend to be, I think. but the galaxy is just stars in practically every direction, and the star systems are not necessarily aligned to the galactic plane (ours is at 60 degrees or something I think, which is closer to perpendicular than parallel to the galactic plane).

Galaxies actually are flat due to rotation

but they have antigravity. ships boarding those would need to be facing the right way up

Yeah and when they meet another ship they are always parallel. Missed the opportunity for a cool detail if they met at a weird angle.

The Star Wars RPG explains that many species tend to find misaligned ships to be disorienting, so they will prefer to place their ships in the same orientation. Tradition holds that all ships entering an area will align themselves with the first ship in that sector.

Having spent hundreds of hours playing X-Wing and TIE Fighter, it does feel vaugely uneasy approaching a Star Destroyer or other ship "upside down" and I would tend to rotate my ship so the other vessel is "right-side up"

Lokarin posted...

Galaxies actually are flat due to rotation

they're relatively "flat" (disc-shaped) when viewed externally, but internally this doesn't mean a whole lot. from within, there are still tons of stars above and below you, not just galactically NESW.

LoGH/GinEiDen has the powers that be in-setting romantically dependent on the idea that space is an ocean. So everyone in formation and all ships oriented the same way and asymmetric like normal ships (as in top and bottom are clearly different)

To the point Commanders get upset when their enemy wins by moving their fleets vertically outside of the horizontal plain...

Edit: Formations are also beneficial to more easily not hit allies when all firing laser barrages, I would assume.

Its harder to do a barrel roll if you dont know which way is up when you start.

Have you watched the expanse? It's more realistic than most sci fi